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Are you aware of the MACAR resource type vocabulary?

Yes, we have been following the discussions about resource type vocabulary with interest.

University of South Australia

Yes

Central Queensland University

Yes

Monash University

Yes

Macquarie University

Yes

University of Adelaide

Yes - Katie Blake's facebook page alerted me to this useful resource several weeks ago. That was the first I'd heard about it.

Are you using the vocabulary? If no, why not? If yes, please give us your reasons for using it.

Deakin:

Yes, we've built it into the typeOfResource field in our MODS doc types (even though it conflicts with the recommended MODS values). We think it is important for repositories to use a common vocabulary to aid data sharing/harvesting; we've noticed a lot of variation among the different repositories, even among those using the same repository software.

Swinburne:

Yes in most cases however we have made some minor adjustments to cater for our audience.

University of Western Sydney:

Yes, we are using the vocabulary. There is an obvious need for consistency across the ARROW community.

University of South Australia

For the most part (we still need to do some data clean up and fully switch over to the vocabulary).

Central Queensland University

I did use it at the start of our repository implementation, but with our data collection limited to the 4 DEST resource types not since then. Will need to use it again now with the advent of ERA and the extensive list of resource types.

Monash University

Yes. I need a standard list of resource types to manage the many virtual collections that Monash can expect to load into the repository. The MACAR list is not that different from the earlier ARROW Discovery Service list and its use doesn't require retrospective changes to the existing collection's metadata.

Macquarie University

Where possible we will use the standard list but find the list limited and needs adding to.

University of Adelaide

Initially we used the item types provided by Dspace and then included those used by Research Master. We were not using the MACAR vocabulary. However, I have just finished using it to completely review our item types. We will use it from now on with a couple of modifications which we'll track. My preference is to use standard terms to aid comparisons and make it easier to share data.

Are there resource types you need that are not covered by the vocabulary?

Deakin:

Not at this point; we could fit all the resource types we anticipate including in our repository (at this stage) within the current vocabulary

It has been hard to deal with exhibitions - we have followed the MACAR advice - ie. "If a single media type predominates or is a substantial part of the resource use the single media type eg text, sound, moving or still image. If more than one type applies use multimedia eg an exhibition recorded on a website with text and images, original artwork in 2D or 3D images, a video recording with sound, a webcast with video and sound broadcast live on the Internet." However, this does not allow for the temporal nature of an exhibition - it is an event with defined dates, like a conference. We are also describing the collection of exhibited objects en masse, rather than each individual object, therefore the description should perhaps be of the 'event' level, rather than the individual object level? Here is an example from e-print Soton, University of Southampton, using the term Show/Exhibition - http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/38491/

Apart from the single example of a "textual apparatus" the rest of the collection is covered by the MACAR list. But I do expect this to change as Monash starts implementing its Data Management Plan and some obscure research data formats start to surface.

Yes. Our repository is also being used to preserve and improve access to the materials in the University's Archives and the Library's Special Collection (which includes rare books, manuscripts and other materials). The collections include item types not covered by your vocabulary, for example, pamphlets, theatre programmes, leaflets etc - perhaps an item type "ephemera" could be used for these. For the present, we will continue to use "theatre programmes" as nothing else seems to cover these items. Other problematic item types are "creative work" - we have 38 in this category and will have to review each item to identify a suitable MACAR category. We have only 3 items under "Exhibition of Art" - these too will have to be reviewed. In summary, these are the item types that don't fit into the MACAR categories; "pamphlets", "creative work", "theatre programme" and "exhibition of art". Another problem area has been contributions to encyclopaedias and dictionaries. Some Uni of Adelaide authors have contributed so many individually authored articles to particular titles that we had grouped several articles into the same item. To comply with the MACAR vocabulary we will change these to "book chapter" but this is really stretching the definition - "article" would be a closer term.

Are there resource types in the vocabulary that you think are unclear or unnecessary? Please comment.

Deakin:

Not really; but the resource types do need to be read in conjunction with their definitions, viz Proposed Resource Type Vocab. By the way, this document specifies that "a book of conference proceedings will be entered as conference proceedings, not a book"; yet there is no resource type for conference proceedings.

Swinburne:

*Dataholding (What is the difference between this and dataset?)

University of Western Sydney:

We have not yet ventured beyond the mainstream types, such as journal article, conference paper, book, book chapter, so we cannot really comment on the other types.

University of South Australia

No

Central Queensland University

No

Monash University

No. I think more is better than less in this case.

Macquarie University

Not at this stage. I find the Wiki a bit complicated to find what terms mean and what fields can be used. Not clear what is happening for Music. Listed on the original list but can't find it on the latest list.

University of Adelaide

The notes under the term "book" direct you to use "conference proceedings" but there is no item type "conference proceedings". Currently, we have 25 items in our collection with the item type "conference proceedings". Should we change this to "book" or will you include an item type for "conference proceedings"?

Have you modified any of the vocabulary terms to suit your own requirements? Please describe.

Yes, We split our theses into specific types, similiar to Swinburne. I suspect we will want to be more specific with the terms moving image, still image, multimedia

University of Adelaide

Our preference is to use "article" rather than "journal article" as this includes newspaper and magazine articles. We would also like to use "articles" for entries in encyclopaedias and dictionaries of biography - but then we won't be compliant with the MACAR vocabulary as these appear under "book chapter".

Are there other vocabularies you think would be useful?

Deakin:

we would have preferred that the MACAR types were compatible with the existing vocabularies we also use: marcgt and MODS; but realise that the former is too specific and the latter too general for repository use.

Swinburne:

Can't think of any at this stage.

University of Western Sydney:

The current list is sufficient for our needs at the moment, with possible allowance made for exhibitions.

University of South Australia

Recommended or best practice guidelines for which properties to use for each resource type. * How to describe people/researchers - I think there is a lot of work to do in this area and that MACAR could have much to contribute

Central Queensland University

No

Monash University

Not aware of any that would be useful.

Macquarie University

Not aware of any that would be useful.

University of Adelaide

This vocabulary has been very helpful in clarifying some of our issues. I hope our experiences and observations can be of use to others.